Tamaya also shows her virtuousness when she attempts to hide her rash from her mother, knowing that to tell her would risk getting Marshall in trouble. Her unwillingness to break rules makes her the subject of ridicule in the lunchroom, with Hope calling her a Goody Two-Shoes after she reminds the others that they aren't allowed into the forest beyond the school grounds. While her friends engage in teasing and fibbing, Tamaya stays true to her sense of right and wrong. Meaning high moral standards and a commitment to acting for good, virtue is a principle to which Tamaya tries to adhere.

As a pupil at Woodridge Academy, Tamaya is proud to wear a sweater displaying the school's motto, Virtue and Valor. Virtue is another key theme in the novel. Having seen the error of his ways, Fitzman apologizes for the unintended consequence of his invention-even as his lawyer insists SunRay Farms will not take responsibility for the rash epidemic. After seeing the 'ergies' mutate into the disease-causing fuzzy mud, Fitzman realizes he didn't factor in the potential of an oxygen-resistant form of Biolene escaping his laboratory and affecting the human population. He reappears before Congress several years later with a much more subdued energy. Senate, the reader understands Fitzman is too excited by his discovery of an environmentally friendly alternative to gasoline to slow down and consider the consequences of his experimental science. From the first excerpts of his testimony to the U.S. Sachar explores the theme most directly through Jonathan Fitzman, the eccentric creator of Biolene. Hubris-excessive self-confidence or pride-is another important theme in Fuzzy Mud. Ultimately, Sachar shows how bullying can plunge people into a defensive psychological state in which it feels as though they can trust no one. Sachar builds on the theme with Marshall's unkind treatment of Tamaya: Although Marshall recognizes she is the only student who isn't mean to him, he cannot help but snap at her during their walks to and from school.

As a result, other students follow Chad's example and pick on Marshall as well, reducing him to a social pariah who resents having to attend school and whose grades are slipping. For no reason he can discern, Marshall has become Chad's target. The narrator addresses the theme more directly in the third chapter with an extended commentary on Marshall's misery and confusion. This image is the first hint Sachar gives the reader that Marshall is disturbed by the bullying to which he has been subject since Chad joined the school. Sachar subtly introduces the theme at the end of the first chapter: Cutting away from Tamaya socializing with her friends over lunch, the narrator's focus lands on Marshall across the lunchroom, where he sits silent and alone. Explored primarily through Chad's treatment of Marshall, bullying is a major theme in Fuzzy Mud.

Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar